The saint and the chopped-up baby : the cult of Vincent Ferrer in medieval and early modern Europe / Laura Ackerman Smoller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smoller, Laura Ackerman, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christian hagiography--History--To 1500.

Christian hagiography.

Vincent Ferrer, Saint, approximately 1350-1419--Cult--Europe--History.

Vincent Ferrer.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (364 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, New York : Cornell University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), a celebrated Dominican preacher from Valencia, was revered as a living saint during his lifetime, receiving papal canonization within fifty years of his death. In The Saint and the Chopped-Up Baby, Laura Ackerman Smoller recounts the fascinating story of how Vincent became the subject of widespread devotion, ranging from the saint's tomb in Brittany to cult centers in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Latin America, where Vincent is still venerated today. Along the way, Smoller traces the long and sometimes contentious process of establishing a stable image of a new saint.Vincent came to be epitomized by a singularly arresting miracle tale in which a mother kills, chops up, and cooks her own baby, only to have the child restored to life by the saint's intercession. This miracle became a key emblem in the official portrayal of the saint promoted by the papal court and the Dominican order, still haunted by the memory of the Great Schism (1378-1414) that had rent the Catholic Church for nearly forty years. Vincent, however, proved to be a potent religious symbol for others whose agendas did not necessarily align with those of Rome. Whether shoring up the political legitimacy of Breton or Aragonese rulers, proclaiming a new plague saint, or trumpeting their own holiness, individuals imposed their own meanings on the Dominican saint.Drawing on nuanced readings of canonization inquests, hagiography, liturgical sources, art, and devotional materials, Smoller tracks these various appropriations from the time of Vincent's 1455 canonization through the eve of the Enlightenment. In the process, she brings to life a long, raucous discussion ranging over many centuries. The Saint and the Chopped-Up Baby restores the voices of that conversation in all its complexity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

A Note on Names

Events Relevant to the Canonization of Vincent Ferrer

Prologue: From Preacher to Saint

1. The Situation

2. The Process of Canonization

3. Shaping the Narratives of the Saint

4. Creating the Official Image of the Saint

5. Competing Stories: Whose Vincent Ferrer Is It Anyway?

6. The Afterlife of the Chopped-Up Baby: The Sixteenth Century and Beyond

Epilogue: Saint Vincent Ferrer in the Spanish Americas

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780801470967

080147096X

9780801470974

0801470978

OCLC:

869282483